Well, they wear knee socks, pleated skirts or ironed
trousers, crisp, clean shirts and Tommy Hilfiger sweaters. If wanting to
accessorize, they can only wear ties.
No, wait… that’s not right. That just calls to mind an
extremely conservative boarding-school student whose father plays golf. That is
not the kind of student that you’d
want in your lit class. I mean, I’ve had 5 classes so far and half our time has
been spent considering existentialism and human nature. That might frighten the
tweed-jacketed sheep.
In all seriousness, that’s not even what the question is
asking. And if you’re wondering, I was
asked this question. We had to answer it on our first or second day of Lit,
along with other questions. (What is literature? How/Why does literature
appear? What is “good” literature? What value does literature have? If these
pique your interest, have at it in the comments!) To answer this question, I
tried to draw on my own strengths, interests and ~ideals and also on what it
was that made me interested in taking literature and what I think will help me
in my studies.
So what was my answer? Well, for one, it was kind of long.
But at the same time, I listed my criteria and didn’t really elaborate or
explain. So that’s what I shall do now.
A student of literature wants to read. This seems pretty
self-explanatory, but it goes deeper than just that. Wanting to read includes
learning about reading. This is not to say grade 12 students headed out into
the world need to be taught how to read, Heaven forbid. What I mean is that lit
students should want to be informed about all the books worth reading that they
can get their hands and time (let’s face it, that’s the biggest hurdle) on.
There are so many good books and stories and poems and movies out there!
Really, if you’re interested in literature, you should want to consume and
learn more about as many of these as possible. Learning about reading also
means learning about how to read better, notice more things, draw connections,
recognize symbolism and references. Every now and then, when reading the work
of a really good writer, I go “holy crap, there’s so much here! Every sentence,
every word, is infused with meaning!” Analyzing writing and noticing ideas is essential to studying literature, so obviously a lit student has to be interested and open to it.
In a classroom, a lit student has to be open to and curious about ideas and opinions. You'll never learn very much if you don't engage in discussion with others and are willing to consider their ideas, point of view, and perspective.
Also, everybody has those books or parts of literature that they're not interested in. But you know what? They're important, too. Because while you're not paying attention, there may be an important concept that is important later, like in other books or works. And who knows? Maybe you'll find something interesting in all that boring stuff, after all! Either way, disinterest is not worth slacking off over. If somebody considered it relevant enough to assign, it's probably at least a bit important.
You know what takes a lot of time? Like, A LOT? Reading. SO if you're in this, you have to put time and effort towards it. Don't skip over stuff, don't sparknote books. Well, not instead of reading. Researching books once you've read them, however, can be very helpful.
And the last point I put down was being respectful. That means being respectful towards other people and their opinions, the stories and works you're reading, and the materials you're using. (Most of the time the books you're using aren't yours. Don't break them. My inner bibliophile would cry and possibly punch you. So would your librarian.)
I do think there is other criteria, but this is mine. I'd like to mention that I do have passions beside books, so stay tuned for those things! In fact, I have my first theatre company meeting of the schoolyear tomorrow, so I'll probably be squealing about that. New year, new teacher, new cast, new plays... It should be interesting. There's a lot of variables, but we usually seem to figure things out.
In a classroom, a lit student has to be open to and curious about ideas and opinions. You'll never learn very much if you don't engage in discussion with others and are willing to consider their ideas, point of view, and perspective.
Also, everybody has those books or parts of literature that they're not interested in. But you know what? They're important, too. Because while you're not paying attention, there may be an important concept that is important later, like in other books or works. And who knows? Maybe you'll find something interesting in all that boring stuff, after all! Either way, disinterest is not worth slacking off over. If somebody considered it relevant enough to assign, it's probably at least a bit important.
You know what takes a lot of time? Like, A LOT? Reading. SO if you're in this, you have to put time and effort towards it. Don't skip over stuff, don't sparknote books. Well, not instead of reading. Researching books once you've read them, however, can be very helpful.
And the last point I put down was being respectful. That means being respectful towards other people and their opinions, the stories and works you're reading, and the materials you're using. (Most of the time the books you're using aren't yours. Don't break them. My inner bibliophile would cry and possibly punch you. So would your librarian.)
I do think there is other criteria, but this is mine. I'd like to mention that I do have passions beside books, so stay tuned for those things! In fact, I have my first theatre company meeting of the schoolyear tomorrow, so I'll probably be squealing about that. New year, new teacher, new cast, new plays... It should be interesting. There's a lot of variables, but we usually seem to figure things out.
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